Where Islam spreads, freedom dies

A new police commissioner has just been appointed in Marseilles to attempt to get a grip on the city's skyrocketing crime levels. The police themselves, close to despair at the situation that confronts them each day, have no confidence that anything is going to change, however. Dominique Achispon, general secretary of the police trade union, observes, "Security is more than just a single man."

Jean-Marie Allemand, another police trade union official, observes:

"There have always been criminals in Marseilles but, before, they came from the organised crime milieu and settled accounts among themselves. But today it's all gone large calibre, in every sense. There are more Kalashnikovs in Marseilles than in the centre of Kabul."